To the Editor:

It is with great displeasure that I read the Providence Journal story regarding Mayor-elect Hopkins about four volunteers and supporters testing positive with COVID-19 given their Election Day and evening activities. Particularly the election night party in a tent with several dozen people that was both entirely unnecessary and selfish given we are in the midst of a pandemic that is getting worse here in Rhode Island.

The Cranston Democratic Party as well as mayoral candidate Maria Bucci both decided to forego an election evening party of their own in the sake of public safety. Additionally, the Cranston Democratic Party also decided to forego their election year breakfast for the first time in over 25 years for the same reasons. COVID-19 is not something to be reasoned with and does not care about the precautions taken.

People have given up birthday parties, anniversary parties, seeing family members, other special events, and even had to deal with obstacles during the grieving process of funerals during COVID-19. All of these sacrifices in hope that if we change our behaviors that we can enjoy time with each other in 2021 without the current constraints being faced. Unfortunately, the Cranston Republican Party did not feel the same with their own behavior. Instead now we are facing a potential public health crisis in our city.

Representative-elect Fenton-Fung announced in her own statement that her husband, our mayor, was tested on Friday “out of an abundance of caution.” So they were aware that something was wrong as of Friday but waited at least until Saturday when the biggest news story of the century so far with the election results was announced. Endangering others needlessly is one thing, but deciding to “dump” it on a Saturday is worse and not the kind of transparency we need from our elected officials. We need to lead by example.

So I hope that the Cranston Republican Party and Mayor-elect Hopkins will lead by example by apologizing to the people of Cranston for their actions and will put forth a plan to help alleviate the COVID-19 virus in our own city as we see our numbers increase.

Michael J. Sepe

Chairman, Cranston Democratic City Committee